The Hunt – Chapters 1 – 7

Chapter One – The Invitation
Through the half-moon window Libby stared at the thin pink-yellow line appearing on the horizon, a new day was here. She sat at a dark mahogany desk and on the desktop were three items: a piece of paper, a medicine bottle and a glass of water. She looked down and slowly moved her hand that gripped a pen to the bottom of the page as she readied to sign her name to her last will and testament. She paused, again, and glanced out the window. The sky was brighter, pastel colored orange and gold blended with the pink and yellow as the sun slowly rose. She could see the town now spreading before her eyes.
Candlelight is a small Missouri town south of Columbia and, as the old saying goes, if you closed your eyes you could miss it. It had a gas station and Mini-Mart combo, an elementary school and a high school but its big claim to fame is the Candlelight Candle Factory located the her right, just out of view. Main street has its City Hall, barber shop, grocery store and hardware store lined up next to each other. Libby still lived in the Davis family home, a two story house across the street from the elementary school where she has been the school’s secretary for the last twenty-five years. Tears are filling her eyes. She blinked and a single one fell down her left cheek.
She was told she had breast cancer. Her mother died of that horrid disease. Libby remembered how the treatments had drained her mom and the hope her father and she had when she recovered. Then the cancer returned with a vengeance a few years later and she died. Her Mom was sixty-five years old. Libby just turned fifty and now she has breast cancer, too. A month ago she felt something funny in her left breast and she went immediately to her doctor. Following a mammogram, she was sent to a specialist in Columbia who tested and announced that she did have cancer. He prescribed the course of action and she went home and cried. She decided to keep it a secret, but she didn’t want to go through all of what her mother did, alone. She thought she would rather die so she sat at her mahogany desk finishing her last will and testament, planning to take all those pills and go to sleep forever.
Libby’s gaze out of her window led her from her school to the ice cream parlor, the Milkshake Straw, located catty-corner from her home and she smiled. It was the place to go after school when she was so much younger. Her friends, the gang of six, would go there from fourth grade to high school graduation, almost every day, for a chocolate shake in the far corner booth. She giggled through the tears as she remembered them, her gang, and she could see their faces. She still hears from each of them somewhat regularly, a couple more than others. All of them escaped Candlelight except for her. None of them left Missouri. Three of the six were married and had kids, and two were divorced like her. One of the divorced friends had one child, and the other, like her, had none. One worked as a newspaper editor in Columbia, one was a teacher in St. Louis, another worked in manufacturing somewhere in Jefferson City, one was a legal aide in Branson, and the other one was a stay at home parent in Wentzville. She smiled again as she thought of them. Suddenly a thought entered her head, a shimmering thought of hope. Maybe, just maybe.
She opened the right hand drawer of the desk and pulled out her laptop, opened it typed in Sami O’Neil.

---

Sammi O’Neil drove her soccer Mom van into the garage of her ranch-style home and the door to the house flew open. Her fifteen year-old son vaulted on the hood of the van. She leaned on the horn and he jumped off. He went to the passenger door, opened it and sat down.
“Hi, Mom!”, he said as he smiled at her.
“Martin. So what’s up,” Sammi replied fully knowing something was indeed up.
“How about a driving lesson?” he grinned at her, sweetly.
She sighed. He was growing up so fast.
“Well, you cannot drive from the passenger seat,” she said as she opened her door. “Meet me at the mailbox and then you can take us to McDonald’s.”
Sammi walked down the driveway as she watched her son run around the car and climb into the pilot’s seat. She paused at the mailbox and watched as the taillights turned white and the vehicle slowly edged down the drive toward her. She opened the mailbox and retrieved her mail. The car stopped beside her, and she opened the door and climbed in.
“Okay, check your mirror then look both ways and take us to dinner,” she instructed as she smiled at him.
Martin smiled back and readjusted the mirror again, this now being the third time he did so, then he looked behind him, both ways, and the slid the car into the street. He pulled the gearshift lever down from reverse to drive, slowly pushed the accelerator, or go, pedal down and they began to roll forward. Sammi smiled at him before saying, “You can go a little faster, you know. Just watch out for any kids and don’t forget to stop at the stop sign, not roll through it.”
He laughed making sure his hands were at ten and two on the steering wheel. He slowly followed the road as it bent left to right and he moved his foot from the go pedal to the brake, or stop, pedal. He shook his head as he thought of his Mom’s names for the pedals, stop and go.
“What?”
“Nothing” he said, turning the signal lever up to turn right. “How was work?”
“Oh, it was work. I had to bring a story home to edit for Mr. Blakely, which explains McDonald’s for dinner.”
“I figured as much. I got more homework that usual, Chem test tomorrow. What’s in the mail? Anything from Dad?”
“No,” Sammi said as she rifled through the few letters in her lap. “But this is strange. I have a postcard.”
“A postcard? Who sends postcards anymore. What does it say?”
Sammi turned it from the front of it to the back and began to read.

---

As Fred opened the door, he heard his wife yell at him from the depths of their home,
“Honey, you got a postcard in the mail!”
Fred put his briefcase down by the door and headed to the living room to the coffee table that was placed in front of his spot on the couch. Sitting on top of a few envelopes was a post card. Alverta entered the room from the dining room with a towel drying her hands. He changed his direction toward his wife, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. She pushed him back and smiled.
“I missed you, too.”
“Yeah, I did miss you too. It was a crazy day at school. Let me just look at you for a minute.”
Alverta stepped back and Fred looked. She was just as beautiful as the day they first met in college. Tall with long dark brown hair that normally touched her shoulders but today it is pulled back into a ponytail. She is wearing a t-shirt that said Best Mom Ever and blue jeans. Her eyes were a brown-green mix, the same ones that got him all those years ago and they are smiling at him now. He stepped forward to embrace her once again, but she pushed him back.
“Nope, it is my turn to look at you,”
Fred complied and stepped back. He wore a suit today, the dark gray one she got him for special occasions, a white shirt with his St. Louis Blues tie that was adorned with the Blue Note logo of his favorite team. His dark brown hair was graying but he still liked it long, to his shoulders. His eyes matched hers with the same brown-green mix, and they were smiling at her, too. He is shorter than her by a few inches, but she never seemed to care and neither did he. This time she stepped toward him and embraced him.
“I love you Freddie and I see you wore my favorite tie. Let’s Go Blues,” she said as kissed him.
When the kiss ended and still holding her in his arms, Fred looked at her and smiled.
“I love you, too. What are the kids up to?”
“You know it is spring sports, Michael is at baseball practice and Susan is running track.”
Michael and Susan are their 17 year old twins, who fight over who gets the car on Saturday night but end up going out together. They both favor Alverta, tall with dark brown hair. The funny thing about them is that their eyes were a sharp crystal blue so opposite their parents.
“So, Al, we are all alone in this big house?”
“We are” she whispered. “But before you whisk me off to the bedroom, I am so curious about that postcard.”
“Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about it,” Fred replied and turned back toward the couch with Alverta following him.

Chris placed his heavy duty headphones securely over his ears as he opened the door to leave his quiet office to enter the noisy floor of the Mason Brothers Fishing Boat Company. He heads to line 4, where Mark Johnson’s team was scheduled to begin to construct a small center console boat for a client to use, presumably, at nearby Lake of the Ozarks..
There are four production lines at the plant with a team of four people for each line. They use a single point assembly method where the team builds the boat in one place and they bring the parts required to build it to it. Well, sort of, because each line has four stations where the boat is moved from one to the next by using a boat frame of Chris’ design. No matter the boat style the frame can be adjusted to the boat’s size and type and it is moved by the work team to each station called the Baseline, Interior, Exterior and, Finishing Details. Chris got word that Mark’s team was stuck on the Baseline.
“What’s the problem, Mark?” Chris asked as he stepped up to the foreman.
“We are beginning to build a center console and Bill put the port side down and Carmen put starboard side down and we’re waiting for Al to weld that aft together and he tells me that he is out of gas for the welder.”
“Send him to inventory for a new cannister! Why are you telling me?”
“You don’t understand. We are out of cannisters in inventory, Chris.”
“Oh, I’ll go make a call.”
Chris turned away from Mark and headed back to his office. This is beginning to become a habit. His crews can’t get into a good working rhythm because on inventory. He was thinking what he was going to say to Vera this time. He opened the door to the office and removed his headphones. The office was small and held four small desks with computer monitors perched on each of them. These are the desks of the three managers of the plant and their office administrator, Alice Simmons, and she sat at the first desk on the right. She looked up at him as he entered, smiling but when she saw him, she frowned.
“Don’t say a word Alice,” Chris told her as he headed toward his desk, directly behind her.
“Inventory?” Bob Jones, the accounting manager, who sat next to Alice spoke up as Chris passed him.
“Again?” Maxine Bowen, the property manager, looked up from her computer screen as Chris sat down.
“Yes, again, Max,” Chris answered her as he sat down. “Welding cannisters this time. I have to call Vera again.”
“It’s not her fault,” Alice piped up.
“Yeah, I know but it is her job to make sure we have what we need when we need it.”
“She knows,” Bob pitched in. “You should be calling purchasing.”
“I thought about that, but I don’t want it to seem that I am going over her head.”
“But you would be,” Alice said as she got up from her seat and walked toward the copier.
Chris sighed as he reached for the phone that was perched on his desk and paused with his hand resting on the handset, thought a minute about what he was going to say and finally picked it up. He pressed the fourth button of four that lined the bottom of the phone and listened to it ringing. It was answered on the third ring.
“Inventory?””
“Hi, Vera.”
“Listen, Chris, it’s not my fault.”
“What isn’t?”
“Whatever it is you need. It is purchasing.”
“Do you even know what we need?” Chris asked.
“No,” Vera answered. “And it doesn’t matter, we are low on lots of things.”
“Would it help if I called purchasing?” Chris offered. “Because that is what I am going to do. I just wanted to give you a heads up before I do. I didn’t want it look like I am going over your head.”
“Would you?” Vera said. “I don’t mean go over my head but call purchasing. It seems like I am talking to a wall.”
“Oh, I will,” Chris smiled. “Your welcome.”
Chris hung up the phone and looked at his office mates. They were all grinning at him, but it was Alice who spoke.
“Nice move. Bill Akers at extension 2101.”
As he reached for the desk phone, his muted cell phone lit up from where he set it on the corner of his desk. He glanced at it and saw the picture of his family, three women smiling back at him but saw that the phone call revealed it was from “The Boss”.
“It’s Cheryl, guys,” he told the group. “I better answer it first.”
“Hi, Cheryl,” he said into it.
“Hi. Sorry to call you ..”
“Something wrong?”
“No. You just received a weird piece of mail and I thought you might want to know about.”
“Okay, what is it?”
“A post card.”
“A post card?

They both sat on the couch in their assigned seats next to each other and Fred reached for the postcard.

---

David Manson slid the key into the doorknob and turned it, and pushed the door opening into his three bedroom ranch home. The house is on a few acres of woods just outside Branson, Missouri. He stepped inside and closed the door. As he walked through the entryway, overhead lights automatically came on following him into the first room on the right, the living room where he paused and said. “Lights on”. The lamps that were strategically placed in the four corners of the room obeyed his command and snapped on. He set down his briefcase and walked, mail in hand, toward the kitchen on his left and went directly to the refrigerator. The overhead lights blinked on as he withdrew a beer from it, twisted the cap and took a long pull from the bottle. He placed it on the island, threw the mail on it and sat down. It had been a long day, he thought to himself, as he loosened his tie. Who would have thought reading all day would be so hard? But he knew his job as a legal assistant would be that way at times. He worked with, and for, Bill Schaeffer, in a practice that specialized in property services. A lot of lawsuits in that line of work. He grinned.
He suddenly stood, grabbed the mail, and left the kitchen and turning right, was back in the hallway. More lights blinked on overhead as he passed the dining room and a small bedroom on the left, and the guest bathroom on the right. Ahead is the door to a second bedroom where he had set up his office and turned right into the master bedroom.
“Lights on,” Davis said, habitually, as threw the mail on his bed as he shed his blue suit coat and walked into the closet to the right of the bedroom door. The light in the closet blinked on and revealed similar jackets hanging on his right, crisp white dress shirts on his left, with cubby holes for his shoes placed below them. He hung the jacket using the one empty hanger next to the dark brown one. Walking deeper into the closet, he removed his shirt and hung it next to a similar one over a four drawer dresser sitting against the wall at the end of the closet. He pulled his t-shirt over his head and threw into the basket next to the dresser and sat in the chair on the other side. He removed, first his shoes then his pants. He stood and hung the pants next to the shirts above the dresser. He stood there and counted the items above the dresser. It was time to take them to the cleaners. He bent to retrieve the shoes and put them in their cubby hole and left the closet.
Back into the bedroom, he turned to a second, shorter, longer, dresser, with a 54 inch television perched upon it. He opened the first drawer and removed some underwear and white gym socks, the second drawer to remove a bright orange t-shirt, and the bottom and third drawer to remove a pair of jeans. He turned and through it on the bed.
The mail bounced up, rearranged itself, and settled back down next to the clothes. David’s eyes fell on an item in the mail that he hadn’t seen in a while, a brown postcard. He picked it up, turned it over, and sat down to read it.

 

“Come on, you two! Get up now!” Chuck yelled from the kitchen.
“Well, I have to get going,” Linda smiled at him from her seat at the table. “You have been a parent for how long now?”
Chuck smiled at her from his leaning position against the sink counter with his coffee cup in his hand. “Only ten years but it seems like never. Coffee to go?”
Linda rose from her spot at the table, smoothed her soft green skirt and walked toward her husband of fifteen years. She slowly surrounded him with her arms and placed her head on his chest.
“I don’t thank you enough, do I?”
“Sure you do, honey,” Chuck answered as he hugged her back.
“How?” she looked up at him.
“Just like this.”
There was a sudden drumming of running feet echoing through the house heading straight toward them. Two boys raced toward them, one blond like his father, the other a redhead like his mother.
“Boys,” Linda cautioned them with her mom voice.
Charlie, the younger blond boy, sat down at the table while the other, Fred, walked toward his parents.
“Do you guys have to be so lovey-dovey all the time,” Fred smiled as he threw his arms around the both of them.
“You are all gross,” Charlie said from the other side of the room. “What’s for breakfast?”
Linda looked at her husband and shrugged. “I got to go. You all have a nice day, Chuck, what’s on your plate anyway?”
“Oh you know, the usual. Nothing but laundry and television,” he hugged her hard and gave her a small kiss.
Linda smiled, turned and kissed Fred on the head and walked over to Charlie and did the same to him. She turned and headed through the kitchen archway into the living room to the coat closet near the front door. Chuck hadn’t moved from his leaning post against the counter watching her all the way to the front door and now as she turned toward him, blowing him a kiss and waving, she opened the door and left the house.
“Dad,” Charlie interrupted his focus on his wife. “Breakfast?”
He looked at his sons and said, “What day of the week is it?
Fred, the oldest of the two by a year, responded, “Thursday.”
“Right! So, what’s for breakfast?” Chuck quizzed them.
“Cereal,” Charlie yelled out before his ten year old brother had the chance.
“Okay,” Chuck turned and pulled down three boxes of cereal from the cabinet. “Who wants corn flakes, rice crispies or cocoa puffs?”
“Cocoa puffs,” Fred took the box to the table.
Chuck pulled three bowls from the cabinet and the box of corn flakes for himself, walked to the refrigerator to grab the milk. He then joined his sons at the table.
“So, boys, what’s your schedule for the day?”
“You know, the usual,” Fred said smiling at his father.
Chuck shook his head as he poured a little milk over the cereal in each bowl and pushed one to each boy.
“I have a test today,” Charlie mumbled through cocoa puffs he had stuffed in his mouth.
“In what subject?” Chuck asked as he sipped his coffee.
“Oh you know,” Charlie pulled the carton of milk toward him. “The usual.”
The two sons and their father laughed together. Then Charlie took a swig of milk directly from the carton.
Later, the house was quiet, and Chuck was sitting in his brown leather recliner reading the news on his phone. He heard the slither of letters sliding into the house from the mail slot in the front door. He pulled the lever on the side of the chair to right himself, got up and walked to the door. He collected the envelopes from the floor and returned to his chair. He straightened the mail and ranked them by size in his lap when he spied the postcard. He separated it from the rest to look at it first. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw one. He did remember that his Dad would get them postcards from the cities he visited when he traveled for work. Chuck smiled to himself about how he and his brother and sister would grab from their Mom the one meant for them. Those cards would always display some feature of the city Dad was at and his scrawl on the back saying something like ‘if you were with me, I’d take you here, love Dad’.
Chuck turned the card to the front to view a tall, full Christmas tree, smartly decorated with garland, flashy ornaments, and candles on every branch. It was an old portrait and the tree is standing in a parking lot of a gas station, sporting the name Kerls’ Gas Station and Mini Mart. He recognized it right away. This postcard was from his hometown, from Candlelight. He quickly turned it over as he wondered, who is sending him a postcard from Candlelight, Missouri? His eyes immediately scanned to the bottom of the card. No signature. He then looked at it more closely. His name and address were neatly printed on the left side that was separated from the message on the right by small thin diagonal line. He began to read the message out loud:
“You are invited to participate in a Scavenger Hunt. If you are interested, please bring a quarter, an ornament, and a bar of soap to the location on the front of this card at 12:00 Noon on Saturday, May 7.”
Chuck turned the card back to the front and leaned back in his chair, looked to the ceiling and asked no one in particular, “A quarter, an ornament and a bar of soap? A scavenger hunt? What’s going on?”
 
Chapter Two – Libby’s Saturday Morning

At exactly 8:00 a.m., Libby opened the door and stepped into this bright, sunny Saturday morning. She crossed the street called Second from her home on the corner of it and School Lane to her place of employment, Candlelight Elementary School. She normally stayed away from work on the weekend, but she needed something to do to occupy a bit of time before she walked to the Mini-Mart, so she decided to tidy up her office. She reminded herself that it wasn’t really much of an office as a reception room. She put her key in the door, entered the building and turned right into the front hallway. Her footsteps echoed through the empty, quiet, corridor. She walked in through the open door of the office where one steps up to a counter. It begins at the wall on the left and ends not quite to the wall on the opposite side to a door to Stephen Brown’s office, the principal. The countertop lifts up there. Libby lifted it and entered her office space beyond it.
She shrugged her backpack off of her shoulders and placed it on her desk which is in the center facing the counter. Behind her seat at the desk, is a large window that opens to the school parking lot across the street where two school busses stand guard, alone. The window ledge is lined with potted plants, various varieties of green, some with mini-flowers and there is one uncontrollable cactus. She walked to them and felt the dirt within each pot to make sure that, even though she watered them just last night before she left for the day, they didn’t need water. She turned and sat in her chair at her desk. She folded her hands slowly in front of her and surveyed her domain. A clock hung above the entrance to the room. To her right, a series of cubby holes filled the wall space with a long table with two chairs set up below them. The cubby holes served as the mailbox for faculty and staff and the table was a workspace. On top of the table was a paper cutter, stapler and a cup filled with pens and pencils next to stacks of multi-colored copier paper. Next to the table, in the corner by the window is the copier that gets used often so Libby gets lots of visitors throughout the day. Along the wall behind her, the wall that separates her from the principal, is the intercom system used to communicate with the school. The system isn’t complex as the face of it holds a number of small levers that represent each room in the building. One was tipped in red and it is the one used more often, the all button. It is used to communicate to the entire school at once. A microphone on a stand rests on the table. It is Libby’s favorite piece of equipment because it is portable and could be moved to any place in the room.
Libby sighed, then unfolded her hands, and clapped the table twice to remind herself that she had things to do. She reached to her left and opened the larger bottom drawer. She removed some items and placed them in front of her. Six faded, blue denim, extra-large, carefully folded, shirts lay before her. She had folded them so that the chest portion of the shirt is the first thing to see and on over the left breast pocket is a patch she embroidered that says The Milkshake Straw. She smiles and removes the top one and returns it to the drawer. She reaches for her backpack, opens it and places the remining five inside. She reaches down again and opens the smaller drawer above the one she just closed. Inside it, she keeps her stationary supplies, pencils, pens, paper, a stack of bright green sticky notes, a stapler and treasure troves of paper clips and thumbtacks. On top of all of that five postcards had been placed. She removed them and placed them with the shirts and zipped the backpack closed. She then turned to her school assigned laptop, opened it and began to access it to review the letter she was editing for Principal Brown.
An hour later, Libby closes the laptop, stands and grabs the backpack and walk through her office into the hallway. She retraces her steps to the front door of the school and reenters the day outside the building. It was warmer and the sun seemed brighter causing her to squint as she pushed the key, turned it and locked the door to the school. She placed her arms through the arms of her backpack and hefted it up on her back. She walked through the bus lane to the sidewalk of School Lane and instead of returning home to the right toward home, she started to her left. When she came to the next building, Candlelight High School, she crossed the street and continued to next intersection. She turns right on First, a parking lot is across the street from the high school’s football field and track. A few joggers were side-by-side running laps as two women in pink track suits walked the track. Passing the track and field, she looked at the back door of Barber’s Bakery and the same time began to smell the sweet scents coming from it. She smiled as she decided right then to stop there to pick up something, everything was great, to take home. At the corner of the bakery, a stoplight stood at the corner of First and Main where turning left to took you to Columbia and right would take you into the Main Street of Candlelight.
Libby crossed the street when the light allowed her and turning slightly right she walked through the parking lot of Kerls Gas Station and Mini-Mart. On the far corner of the lot, near an entry lane, stood a tall, completely decorated Christmas tree. When she reached the front door, she turned and looked at it from top to bottom and smiled. She opened the door and walked inside. A series of aisles of shelves lined with all kinds of food items were to her right. A counter with a smiling young man sitting on a stool on the other side of it is on her left and straight ahead was another counter that held coffee brewers and fountain drinks next to a microwave. She knew that on the other side of the food items was another large room was the Candlelight Ministry full of second-hand items for sale, cheap.
“Hi, Libby,” the man called her from his stool. “Cup of coffee on the house?”
“Thanks, Mike,” Libby smiled back as she shrugged off her backpack and placed it on the counter. “I need to talk to you. I will be right back.”
She walked to the coffee counter and filled Styrofoam cup and returned with her coffee to find Mike waiting for her with her backpack in his hand.
“Let’s go into the office,” he said as he led her back the way she came.
They walked past the fountain drinks and through an office door. The room was bigger than one expected as it held not only his desk but a round table where two chairs waited for them. On the wall behind the table opposite the desk, four monitors were mounted reveling four different scenes of the store; the counter, the gas pumps, the side entry to Candlelight Ministry and the last one was inside the store itself.
“Wow, so many cameras,” Libby commented as she sat next to Mike at the table.
“I need to see if I get a customer if I am in here alone.”
“Well then, I will make this quick.”
“You take as long as you need,” Mike reassured her. “How can I help you?”
“Well, I am hoping to have five old school friends visit soon and I kind of led them to your store.”
“What?”
“Yes, I didn’t want them to know it was me inviting them,” Libby explained. “So I am sending them on a sort of scavenger hunt back home and the first stop is here.”
“Wow,” Mike said. “Why here?”
“We used to come here when we were kids. Your Mom and dad ran the store then and I think you were in elementary school when we were in high school.”
“I might have known them, huh?”
“Maybe, maybe,” Libby shook her head. “Anyway, I sent them a postcard like this one.”
She slowly slid the brown card toward him. He picked it up and looked at
It and smiled.
“It’s the Mini-Mart,” Mike smiled and turned it over. He read the inscription and looked at Libby. “They will be here soon.”
“I am hoping you will help me get them to their next destination,” she reached into her backpack and pulled out the remaining items.
 
Chapter Three – On the Way

Sammi placed her overnight bag into the back of the van and closed the lid. She went back into the house through the garage into the kitchen. Martin was sitting at the table hunched over the bowl of cereal she had placed for him. He looked up and smiled at her.
“Do you have any plans with your father while I am gone?” she asked as she joined him at the table, coffee cup at hand.
“I don’t. He might. I don’t know,” Martin said through a mouthful of crunchy goodness.
She smiled at her teenager dressed in a dark blue hoodie and blue jeans. She unknowingly dressed the same way. She shook her head.
“What?” Martin asked watching her as she laughed in response. He let her stop before he followed up with a second question. “What do you think you will be doing in Candlelight?”
“I don’t know,” she sipped her coffee. “It has been awhile since I have been home. Especially since Mom died.”
“I like Candlelight,” Martin nodded. “I miss Grandma, too. Who do you think sent you that postcard?”
“I don’t have too many friends still left there,” Sammi explained. “I don’t know but I will know soon. Where is your father?”
“You know, Dad. When you need him to be on time, he is always late.”
“Hmmm,” Sammi said as she thought that too much of her opinion of her former husband has definitely rubbed off on her son. She will have to be more careful in the future. She met Kevin when they were at college at Mizzou at a dorm party and found they were both interested in journalism. They eventually fell in love, married, got jobs for different newspapers in Columbia, had a family and got divorced thirteen years later. She sighed out loud.
“You okay, Mom,” Martin asked her.
“Sure,” she smiled at him. “Put your things in the dishwasher and go get your backpack. We will wait for him outside.”
“Okay,” Martin got up and did what he was told.
Sammi followed him to the dishwasher and placed her cup inside it. Before closing the door, she reached into the cabinet above it and pulled out a bright red travel mug. She filled it with remaining coffee from the coffee pot and placed the coffee pot inside the dishwasher, shut the door, and started the machine. A car honked.
“He’s here Mom!” Martin called from the front of the house.
“Okay, wait for me!” she called back. She hurriedly wiped the table with the sanitized wipe she pulled from its yellow container, threw it in the trash can as she hurried to the front door.
Martin was waiting for her there and she hugged him.
“You have your phone? Your homework?” she asked him as she watched him nod yes. “I should be back tomorrow before you but if not, don’t go anywhere. Call me if you need to.”
“You, too.”
“I will. Let’s go see your father before he honks the car again.”
The car horn blared again.

Fred was making good time as he headed west on I-70. He had just passed the Church Street exit at Wentzville and had his cruise control set at 73 miles per hour. He didn’t like going much more than three miles per hour faster than the posted limit. His wife thought he was weird. On his radio, the CD player had the soundtrack of Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night blaring. Neil Diamond was the one thing his parents got him hooked on and this was the best of the best. Neil was singing I am, I said, and Fred’s thoughts went to his hometown of Candlelight. It has been awhile since he had been home. His parents moved to Florida when they retired a few years ago and he had no reason to go there. But Candlelight was a cool place to grow up. We could go anywhere and not be far from home.
His childhood home was next to the Fuller’s, the home of the owner of the Candlelight Factory, the place which the town was named. It was a candle factory. His Dad was the account manager and his Mom worked in sales there. His best friend, or one of his best friends, was Chuck Graham who lived a block over from him and next to the malt shop. Chuck also lived just down the road from Candlelight Park and the baseball fields they played at everyday of every summer. Yeah, he and Chuck, Chris, and Dave, all dreaming of life in the major leagues. He wondered where they were and what they were up to since they were last together and just when was that? His cell phone interrupted his thoughts and Neil Diamond. He pressed the phone button on his steering wheel.
“Hello, Al.”
“Hi,” his wife Alverta responded. “I was just wondering how you were doing?”
“I’m getting there. Columbia exit is not too much farther.”
“Good. The boys are fine. Nothing going on here, I just miss you. Maybe I should have come with you.”
“Nah, I don’t know where this is going with this postcard thing.”
“But I am so curious!” Al screamed. “I can hardly wait to find out. How fast are you going anyway?”
“You know me, Al. Three miles over. Go faster.

Earlier that same morning, Chris Stevens had packed the car with not only his overnight bag but those of his twin girls. That was a direct result of the previous night’s dinner conversation which he was playing over in his mind. After he got home and completed his usual routine of disrobing, showering and a quick shave before dinner he headed for the kitchen. Cheryl was at the kitchen sink washing a head of lettuce, shredding off some of the individual leaves and placing them in a bowl beside her. She is a petite woman, barely five foot tall, wearing blue jeans and an oversize baby blue sweatshirt. His Mom would call her hairstyle pixie as it was short and colored a bright rusty red.
“Where are the girls?” Chris asked her as kissed the top of her head.
“I don’t know but hopefully doing their homework,” Cheryl replied as she picked up a pair of scissors and attacked the lettuce in the bowl.
“I see we are having a salad for dinner. Anything you need me to do?”
“You could set the table for me,” Cheryl said as she walked to the stove.
Chris opened the cabinet next to the sink and removed four white plastic glasses and matching plates from it. He carried it to the kitchen table and set them in the middle of it. He looked up toward the entryway and saw his two girls walking through it.
“Hi guys, how are my girls today?”
Jill walked up to him and gave him a big hug. She was definitely the daddy’s girl for the two of them. Jennifer just rolled her eyes as she walked by them causing him to laugh. Jill let go of him and sat at the table as Jennifer went right to a kitchen drawer to get enough silverware for all of them. Chris walked over to her and gave her a quick hug. She leaned into the hug and closed the drawer. Chris continued to the refrigerator and grabbed the pitcher of iced tea he knew would be there. He returned to the table at the same time Cheryl was placing a casserole dish of lasagna in the middle of the table. He smiled thinking he was a happy man.
“Salad,” Cheryl said as she sat in her spot at the table,
Chris followed her direction and sat down, opposite her. To his left sat Jill and to his right was Jennifer.
“Grace,” Jill said as she reached out for her parents’ hands and the family formed a circle.
“My turn,” Jenny said. “Dear God bless this food we are about to eat and the hands who made them, amen.”
After the commotion of filling plates and glasses and things had a settled into a nice rhythm, Chris began the conversation.
“Tomorrow, I will be heading to Candlelight for the weekend…”
“Why?” Jenny asked.
“The postcard,” Jill reminded her.
“Oh, yeah. Who sent that to you again?”
“Your father and I thought it would be a good idea for you two to go with him.”
“What?” Jenny stopped eating her salad.
“Yay!” Jill cheered.
“You go, then and I’ll stay with Mom.”
“No, girls. You are both going with him so after dinner I want you to pack your backpacks for the weekend. Don’t worry about your toiletries, I’ll pack them with Dad’s stuff.”
“Toiletries?” Jenny said. “What’s that?”
“You know, your toothbrush, hairbrush, that kind of stuff,” Jill told her.
“Shut up,” Jenny yelled across the table from her sister.
“Girls, please stop and just eat,” Cheryl instructed them. “Anything else you want to add, dear?”

Now Chris shook his head at the memory of it and looked at the teenager beside him. Jill was asleep. Her seatbelt was stretched across her cheek as she leaned against the door. He sat up a bit and looked at his rearview mirror at the daughter in the backseat. She was looking at her tablet with headphones stretched from ear to ear. He smiled to himself and drove toward Candlelight.

It wasn’t a tough decision for David to go to Candlelight, he needed a break from work, and he was long overdue to visit his parents. Everett and Marie Manson still lived at the corner of third and Main across the street from Farmer Dell’s Chicken and Vegetable garden. He sent an email to his boss last night and he was in the middle of packing an overnight bag that he had placed on his bed. He was wearing blue jeans and his black and gold Missouri sweatshirt, and he placed an extra pair of tennis shoes inside the bag. Next to bag was the postcard and he picked it up and read it again.
“You are invited to participate in a Scavenger Hunt. If you are interested, please bring a quarter, an ornament, and a bar of soap to the location on the front of this card at 12:00 Noon on Saturday, May 7.”
He walked inside his closet to the small dresser where on top he had a small jar. It was into this jar that he daily emptied his pocket of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, if he had any. He took the jar and gently shook as he watched the coins bounce until a quarter fell out of it. He picked it up and returned to the bed and tossed it on top of the postcard.
“A bar of soap,” he mumbled as he headed to the guest bathroom. The overhead light sprung to life as he entered the hall. He turned into the bathroom, flipped on the light switch, bent down to the cabinet below the sink, and saw what he was looking for, a small box labelled Dove. He grabbed it, turned ff the light and returned to his bedroom. He tossed the soapbox next to the quarter, turned and went back to the hall.
“And now the ornament,” he said as he paced through his home to the kitchen and through it to the mudroom. He pushed open the door to the garage. He walked to the right of the door to a ladder hanging on the wall, grabbed it, and opened it. Directly above him, a box was placed on the rafter and it was labeled Christmas. He stepped up the ladder, grabbed the box and returned it to the floor of the garage. It was a square container and he opened it to reveal the careful way he had packed it. He removed the five strings of re-boxed multi-colored lights that were on top to reveal the six strategically placed shoeboxes to fit the square. He carefully pulled one out, placed it on top of the others, and opened it. Five red, round, glass bulbs with ornament hooks attached is lined on one side with five matching white ones opposite, just the way he packed them. He withdrew one of each, placed the lid back on and replaced the shoebox, then the lights, closed the box and returned it to the rafters.

As he returned to his bedroom he wondered out loud, “What is Mom going to think of this?”

It wasn’t much of a decision for Chuck to make. He owed his Mom a visit. It was Linda who suggested they make it a family event. Fred and Charlie were just as excited to see their Grandma, too. After breakfast and a quick watering of Linda’s flower baskets, they packed the car and began the journey. He drove, she had the shotgun seat and the boys were laughing in the back seat and Linda turned up the volume on the radio.

“So what do you think?” she asked him.
“Of what?” he looked at her sideways. “I hate driving on this street. There are so many traffic lights before we get to the highway.”
“You always say that and back to my question, please,” she laughed. “And don’t play with me, you know what I am asking about.”
“The scavenger hunt?”
“The scavenger hunt,” she laughed again.
“Yeah, Dad,” Fred chimed in.
“Yeah,” Charlie spoke up, too. “What’s with the quarter, bar of soap, and an ornament anyway?”
“What’s a scavenger hunt?” Fred asked.
Linda turned down the volume on the radio and they waited for Chuck to explain.
“Well.” He began as he eased off of the brake and slowly eased the car to the third of four remaining traffic lights until reaching the highway. “A scavenger hunt is a game.”
“A game?” Charlie interrupted.
“Yes, a game. Everyone one or every team is given a list of identical items, crazy items, and are given a time limit to go find the items.”
“If it’s a game, how do you win?” Fred questioned.
“At the end of the time limit whoever has the most items, wins.”
“Wins what?” Charlie again.
“Whatever the prize is,” he said as he slowed the car to a stop.
“Did you play this game?” from Fred.
“Yes, when I was a kid. We would play it at our lock-ins at church.”
“Lock-in?” Charlie asked.
“A whole other conversation, boys,” Linda interrupted.
“Did you ever play, Mom?” Fred again.
“Yes, I did. When I was a cheerleader. Our squad did one once as a get to know each other thing.”
“How do you get the items?” Fred asked.
“You went around the neighborhood banging on doors asking people,” Chuck responded. “You couldn’t play that way today.”
“What not?” Fred asked.
“So, Dad, do you know what the prize is for this scavenger hunt?” back to Charlie.
“You know, I don’t know.”
Linda reached into her bag and pulled out the postcard again and read, “You are invited to participate in a Scavenger Hunt. If you are interested, please bring a quarter, an ornament, and a bar of soap to the location on the front of this card at 12:00 Noon on Saturday, May 7. Well, today at noon seems to be the time limit.”
“A quarter, an ornament, and a bar of soap. I wonder what someone wants with those?” Fred asked.
“Nothing. The items are just things to ask for,” Chuck said.
“What’s the prize?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know,” Charlie answered. “The highway at last.”
“I have a better question,” Linda said as she reached for the radio again. “Who are we playing against?”
“You know, honey,” Chuck glanced at his wife as he accelerated onto the highway. “That is a good question.”

Chapter Four – A Coffee Cup and Secondhand Shirt – Homecoming
The drive from Columbia to Candlelight was simple. Sammi first stopped at the Mini-Mart at the corner of E. Broadway and Highway 63 for a large black coffee and a chocolate long john and settled into her minivan. She rested her head, took a sip of her still, hot brew and returned to Candlelight in her mind. Such a small town it was. She loved Main Street because it was so simple. As you entered town, the only building on the left is Kerls”’ Gas Station and Mini-Mart and Barber’s Bakery, City Hall, Bill’s Barber Shop, The Grocery Store and Candlelight Hardware lined up on the right. The Candlelight Factory, the largest building in town, was prominently at the end of the street facing the entry to town from Columbia. Lamp posts lined the street with actual candles inside that a paid Candlelight Factory employee lit every evening. A tall Christmas tree stood in the parking lot of the gas station, filled with ornaments and candles. Her understanding that they were original candles in the beginning but now are solar powered now. She smiled at the thought of entering her hometown now and turned the key and started her vehicle.
She eased out on to E. Broadway following the traffic to the intersection and pulled into the right turn lane as she waited for the light to turn green. She took another quick sip and a bite from her doughnut as she turned onto Highway 63 slowly gaining speed as she entered the ramp to merge on the two lane road. She watched digits of her speedometer slowly gain to 65 and she set the cruise control. She relaxed again, taking another bite of the doughnut. Sammi flicked on the radio using the buttons on her steering wheel and again settled in her seat for the 30 minute ride to Candlelight.

A scavenger hunt. She hadn’t been on a scavenger hunt since she was a member of her MYF group at the Candlelight Methodist Church. MYF, Methodist Youth Fellowship…that was a while ago, too. It was a team event that time, and she was on a team with her best friend Libby Davis. It was quite a lengthy list as she remembered and the two of them really tried that time, banging on a lot of neighbor doors asking for the various trinkets and rushing back to beat the time limit. They thought they might be the winners because they were the first ones back and were missing only two items. But no, they lost and were the only ones who didn’t get all of the items on the list. She reached over and snatched her coffee from the cup holder beside her and slowly finished her drink keeping a careful eye on the road. Buildings were slowly giving way to trees along the edges on the side of the road. She sat up a little taller in her seat as she knew the first view of her hometown was just ahead. The trees seemed to arch across the road, almost touching but not quite, creating a tunnel and she saw it. The Candlelight Factory first and then the lampposts, the Christmas tree, and then the town. She slowed, turned her turn signal for a left hand turn and eased into the parking lot of Kerls”’ Gas Station and Mini-mart.

Fred was making good time streaking down interstate 70 at a cruise control speed of 75 miles per hour. Traffic was reasonable light but with, to him, seemed like a lot of trucks pulling huge piggy-back trailers. Exit 126 for Highway 63 was just ahead, and he had already decided to stop at the QT located there for a break. As he slowed entered the ramp following a light gray Ford Mustang that he envied when it flew past him. He always wanted a Mustang. They just looked sharp to him. He didn’t really know why but they always did. At the light, he turned right on 63 that would take him north to Kirksville if he stayed on it instead he turned again onto the outer road and into the parking lot of the QuikTrip.

He pulled alongside a gas pump, got it out of the car, and headed inside. He first headed toward the restroom and then to the coffee stand. He decided on a large Hawaiian Kona blend, grabbed an egg, sausage and cheese breakfast sandwich from warm sandwich shelf and stood in line at the counter. After paying, he went back to his vehicle, opened the door and threw the bag with the sandwich over onto the passenger seat and turned to the pump. He placed his coffee cup on the roof and pulled his wallet out, again, because he just put it back after paying for his stuff inside. He sighed as he tapped his card on the pump pad beginning the process of paying for the fuel he was about to put in the car. Having finished all of that, he sat back inside the car and turned the key in the ignition, he reached down to grab his coffee from the holder beside him. There was nothing there. He slowly began to laugh out loud and reopened his door. He put his leg out and slowly stood up, reaching with his left hand to snatch the cup from the roof and sat back down in his seat. He couldn’t wait to get back home to Candlelight.

Pontoon boats. That’s all he was thinking about as he guided his vehicle north on Highway 63. Pontoon boats. He had to check his email before he left this morning and, yes, he had to read the one from his boss, Marilyn, that she wanted a custom built fishing pontoon boat for herself. She wants five fishing holders, not three like everyone else in the world but five. And a remote control trolling motor and live well seating all around the perimeter with a fish finder.
Chris sighed to himself and glanced in the rearview mirror. The girls were quiet in the backseat, each with ear pods nestled into their ears. He shook his head and returned his focus on the road. It was only a half hour to Candlelight, so he hadn’t bothered to turn on the radio, but he did have the map on the display screen. He glanced at it and noticed he was coming up to Ashland knowing that he would soon be coming to the exit that takes him to Candlelight. He hadn’t made up his mind to go home first or straight to the gas station the postcard pointed them. He glanced at the time. 11:38. He better go straight there, or he might be late. He looked up in time to see the exit sign that read Ashland exit, ½ mile. Just five miles past that was the exit for Candlelight. He glanced up at the mirror and pressed down on the accelerator. Coming off the exit ramp, he paused, looked left and rolled through the stop sign.
“What’s the rush, Dad?” It was Jenny.
“Are we there yet?” That was Jill.
“No rush and not yet.”
“I can’t wait to get there,” Jill giggled. “Any ideas as to who sent that postcard?”
“I have been thinking about that and I have no clue.”
“Do you think the tree is still there?” Jenny asked.
“Where?”
“At the gas station we are going to? You know, the giant Christmas tree that is there with all the ornaments and crazy candles.”
“That tree,” Chris said. “Well, I have been told that an angel left it there.”
“You know the story, sister,” Jill said. “Of how, the town wasn’t so very nice and how a strange girl, an angel, came and straightened them out.”
“And left the tree there as a reminder,” Chris finished the story. “Look, girls, there is Dell’s farm and that means we are almost to Kerls’ place. Still want to go with me or to grandma’s?”
“With you! Jinx!” they laughed together.
Chris passed the turn to Fourth street across from the farm and then the Catholic Church, the Methodist Church on his left and the cemetery on his right. He slowed by the fire house on the right and the mortuary opposite. Next to the fire station is the big building of the Candlelight factory, the two story house of the factory owners, the Fullers. The road bent left onto Main Street and he saw it ahead on the right.
“The tree!” Jenny screamed.
He hardly noticed as he drove toward it that he had passed the hardware store, the grocery store, and the barber shop. He turned on his signal at city hall.
“That’s new,” Jill said.
“What?” he looked at her in the rearview mirror.
“The huge parking lot we just passed,” Jenny answered.
Chris looked over toward the gas station. They were right, a large parking lot scattered with cars was next to the station. He remembered it as a patch of trees there. He turned into parking lot near the pumps and up to the front of the store and turned the ignition key to off. The girls were busy unbuckling and giggling as he leaned back and looked to his left. A minivan parked next to him and around the front a ponytailed woman walked up the front door. He quickly opened his car door and stood up.
“Sammi!?”

The woman paused and looked over her shoulder, her ponytail swishing behind her.

David just went over a bridge that crossed the Missouri River and exited I-44, rolling to a slow stop at the end of the ramp. Directly opposite him was a small green sign asking him to choose from two towns listed, one on top of the other. The top one said, Candlelight, 15 miles with an arrow pointing right and the bottom said Hartsburg, 23 miles to the left. He drew a breath and turned right.
From the turn, there was nothing but farms to town, giving him time to think. Candlelight, that small little town he grew up in. Boy, he wanted to get away from it, too. Someone asked him why once and he told them that it was because no one understood him there. But that wasn’t entirely true. Everyone understood. Everyone treated him like a normal person, no, like a person. He sometimes wished he never left there. He reached over and turned on the radio. Nothing but static emerged. He glanced at the display screen and quickly tapped the search button. It scrambled to a station that came into the middle of a weather forecast and he tapped the search button again, setting that station as a favorite. He remembered it, too, KJMO Classic Rock Radio, 97.5 FM on the dial. He recognized the tune playing now, The Chain, by Fleetwood Mac, and he turned the volume up. He pressed a button on the door console and his window slowly slid down. The wind blew in and swirled the hamburger wrapper that was lying on the seat beside him up and into the back. He laughed as he slowly pushed his car forward as the music pushed him toward home.
He slowed when the farms gave way to a few more houses appearing along each side of the road and he knew he was getting close. A large billboard loomed toward him on his left. It read Candlelight Realty presents Hometown Homes from $150,000, Lots for Sale now. Wow, Candlelight is growing. He noticed a second sign, a more familiar one, Welcome to Candlelight. Now, the memories of his mind were beginning to take shape and hold. A series of mailboxes, stacked three on top of another three, appeared at the head of a road entrance just past the welcome sign. They were for the farms scattered down that old gravel road. But where a matching road should have been on the other side, there was nothing but flattened, brown dirt and three huge, yellow excavators sat alone. He smiled and said to himself, “Must be for the new neighborhood.” He slowed when he saw the 30 mile per hour sign and there it was on his right was, Farmer Dell’s Chicken and Vegetable Farm. The vegetable stand still stood in front. A memory came back to him then of working there from late spring through early autumn, doing whatever the Dell’s wanted for $1.50 an hour and all the food you wanted to take home. He pushed his turn signal down and turned left on the street opposite the farm and next to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

David slowly rolled by the very first house opposite the church and stared at it through the open window, the music still blaring but unnoticed. There it was. His old home on the corner. It looked the same to him. A small two-story house, brick, just like the others around it. Inside, he knew you walked into a small entryway, with the living room, a great room really, to the right, and the dining room was across from it. Straight ahead was the stairway to the three bedrooms and bath on the second floor. A half bathroom was beneath the stairs for use on the main floor. The kitchen was behind the dining room. A small hall led from there behind the living room to the laundry room and door to the small attached garage that stood to the right of the front door. He knew his parents would be home,, his Dd sitting in his easy chair with the Saturday paper open and being read cover to cover. His Mom would be in the kitchen or out in the backyard tending to her garden, on her knees pulling weeds. He accelerated slowly past, he would come back later, and turned right at the next street.

The drive down Highway 63 from Interstate 70 to Candlelight was always peaceful for Chuck. The busyness of life kind of faded away as he drove by farmland and trees. He cracked his window and heard the air rush in. He also felt it as wind tussled his hair, pushing toward the ceiling of the car. It surrounded him, the coolness he felt on his arms, and the freshness of it as he took in a deep breath and held it. The car has been quiet for a while. The kids were asleep in the back and Linda had her ear pods on listening to who knows what and staring out the window. At that moment, she looked at him, reached over and placed her hand on his thigh. He smiled at her. She took out the ear pods and said, “We are getting to my favorite part of the trip?”
“What’s your favorite part of the trip?”
“When the road is completely surrounded by trees and they reach toward the sky and you see the tips touching the clear, blue sky. They reach over the road and try to touch their neighbor on the other side, kind of creating a tunnel and then suddenly, they are gone and there is Candlelight. I always thought it was a cute little town. I could always see you when you were younger running all over it.”
“I did run all over it, with my bike. Me and David would meet up with Chris and Fred at the fields to see if anyone else was there to play a game or two of baseball. Sometimes the girls would come, too.”
“The girls, huh?” Linda teased.
too.”
“I am sure it was because you were there. I have seen picture were so cute back in the day.”
He looked at her and shook his head, “I believe your trees are up ahead.”
It was just as she described. The trees started to become thicker on each side of the road and gradually taller and, yes, tips of trees were almost touching giving that tunnel affect that she felt. Well, he always did, too. The road was leading him around a slight bend and as it straightened, the trees opened up to reveal Candlelight. Straight ahead he could see the Candle Factory appearing to be at the end of the road, but he knew it bent in front of it to the right and onto Jefferson City. The streetlamps were still lined up on both sides of the street toward the factory and the Christmas tree stood tall at the foot of the entrance to Kerls’ Gas Station and Mini-Mart. He turned there and eased up to a parking spot next to a minivan.
“Are we there yet?” came for the back seat.
“We are,” Chuck said as he turned off the ignition.
Fred and Charlie banged the rear doors shut before Chuck even opened his and he rose to stand next to his car. He looked down the row of cars next to his before returning his stare to the front of the Mini-mart.
“Is it as you remember it?” Linda asked as she waited for him at the front of his car.
“Maybe a little,” he smiled at her, put his arm around her and together they walked inside.
It was exactly as he remembered it as the door closed softly behind them. The soda fountain was directly in front of him, the aisles of food and candy choices to his right and the same counter to his left. The only difference was the man behind the counter looked like a younger version of Mr. Kerls. The man grinned at him. At the counter, a small group of people stared at him.
“Chuck?” the only woman of the group spoke first. “Oh my goodness guys, it is Chuck!”
And then he recognized them and rushed toward them, leaving Linda behind. “Sam? Sam, it is you.! And David! And Freddie! Chris! How are you guys!”
Now they clamored together in a noisy circle and Chuck asked, “What are you doing here?”
One by one, each one held a brown postcard and as Linda walked to stand beside Chuck, she held up his.
“Well, then,” a voice behind them spoke up. “Now, that you are all here?”
“How do you know we are all here?” Chris asked.
“My name is Mike. I know you are all here because I have five bags,” he said as he reached below the counter. He carefully placed five paper bags on top of it. Each were marked with each of their names. “I believe you were asked to bring a quarter?”
They each held one out to him and Mike smiled back at them.
“Before I hand them over to you, I have some additional instructions from the sender. The bar od of soap is a donation to our Thrift Store, the entrance of which is just on the other side of this aisles. See it there, in the back. Please take a look through it. Everything is for our needy neighbors. Next, take the ornament to the tree out front and, please, add to it. And lastly, open your bag only then. Now, ladies first.”
“Wait a minute,” David interrupted. “Who are you again? And who is behind this?”
“I told you, I’m Mike, and I can’t tell you who is behind this. I was asked not to, and it sounded like a lot of fun. A scavenger hunt!”
“You look just like Mr. Kerls, but younger,” Chuck interrupted now.
“Yes, thanks I guess. He was my Dad,” Mike said. “About the bags now? Sammi? Ah, nice to meet you? Chuck? David? Fred? And last but not least, Chris? Oh yeah, the quarters! Please place them in the donation cup to help cancer research here on the counter here and have a cup of coffee.”
They took their bags and huddled in front of the soda fountain.
“This sounds fun!” Linda said as she joined the huddle.
“Oh my, I forgot, guys,” Chuck stammered, “This is my wife, Linda. We brought our boys, too. They are somewhere around here.”
“I brought my girls, too, and they are somewhere around here,“ Chris chimed in.
“So it’s so nice to see you guys,” Sammi said as she started making the round of hugs and when she got to Linda she stopped and grinned, “I’m Sammi, Samantha, but I go by Sammi. It is so nice to meet you.”
Linda smiled and greeted her with a hug.
“The boys are always so rude. That’s Fred, David and Chris,” Sammi pointed them out as she named them.
“Wow, some things never change,” Fred smiled back at the two women standing beside Chuck.
“Well, yes, back to the task at hand. Who wants coffee?” Chris spoke up for the first time.
A short time later, ten people were gathered by a Christmas tree. Six adults were watching nine and ten year old boys and two, thirteen year old girls, place ornaments on the tree.
“That task is done. Let’s open up the goodie bag,” Chuck spoke up.
In front of them.
“On the count of three,” Linda excitedly proclaimed. “Open your bag. One…two…three.”
They reached inside and pulled out a blue denim shirt. A brown card fluttered from Fred’s bag and Charlie reached down to pick it up.
“We all got shirts,” Chris held his up before him.
“There’s a Milkshake Straw patch on them,” Sammi said and she ran her hand over it.
“Here’s another postcard,” Charlie handed it to Fred.
“Do we wear these things?” Chris asked.
“I have a postcard, too,” Chuck said as Linda peered over his shoulder.
“Looks like we all do,” Sammi pulled her card from her bag.
“What’s it say?” Jillian asked excitedly edging closer to her father.
“Well, it says,” Chris said, not only to his daughter but everyone. “Put on your blue shirt and head to the place it advertises but bring a candle, baseball dirt, and a church bulletin with you. See you later!”
“A candle, baseball dirt, and a church bulletin,” Fred laughed. “Is this weird or what?”
 

Chapter Five – Candles

  “What do we do?”  Chuck asked.

  “Put on the shirt silly!” Linda laughed at him.

  Chuck smiled and handed her the bag.  Sammi carefully placed her bag on the ground.  She pulled out the blue shirt and held it up in front of her.  Fred was pulling his right arm through the corresponding sleeve of his shirt.  Chris was busy modeling his shirt for two laughing twin girls and David slowly shook his head.

  “Here, David,” Linda said.  “I’ll hold your bag, too.”

  “Open or closed,” Sammi asked.

  “What?”  Fred looked at her with a strange look on his face.

  “Should we button them or leave them open?” she explained.

  “What difference does it make?”

  Everyone turned and looked at the boy who asked the question.

  “Who are you again?”  Fred asked him.

  “I’m Fred.”

  “I knew I liked you the first time I met you!”  Fred said.  “You know we have the same name and that is a great question.  Sammi, what difference does it make?”

  “It just does,” Jill answered for her.  “You are on a scavenger hunt together and you need to look like a team.  I vote open.”

  “Open it is,”  Sammi declared as she smiled at Jill.

  “What does the patch say?” Charlie asked.

  “And who are you?”  Fred asked the boy.

  “I’m Charlie.”

  “That’s right,” Fred said. “And don’t you forget it.”

  “Don’t mind him, son,” Chuck said to his son.  “He is crazy.  The patch is for a place we know in town.”

  “It’s an ice cream parlor, Charlie,” David spoke up.

  “Wow, you guys really look like a team!” Jenny said nodding her head.  “So, what’s the next move?”

  “I just counted and there are ten of us,” Sammi replied.  “We could all fit in my van.”

  “Or we could just walk,” David volunteered.  “We used to do it all the time.”

  “Walk?”  Jenny’s shoulders sagged while her sister beside her clapped her hands.

  “Why not?  The exercise will be good for us,”  Fred said.  “But, first, we have a problem we got to fix?”

  “What to get first?”  Chuck asked as he looked at his postcard.

  “No, man!  There are two Freds here.  We need a way to tell the difference or we are both going to be answering all of your questions.”

  “That’s simple.  My mom calls me Freddy!”

  “Good, now that’s solved, Fred, which one should we go to first?”  Chuck asked again.

  “The candle is mentioned first,”  Linda volunteered.

  “Yeah,”  David agreed.  “And there is only one place to get a candle in this town.”

—

  Mike watched the group from his seat at the counter inside the store. He saw ten heads look down the street and he smiled to himself.  He put down his coffee, reached across the countertop to the black phone sitting there.  He removed the handset and used the rotary dial to make a call.  He held the handset to his ear and waited.  The phone connected and it rang only twice when it was answered.

  “Hello.”

  “Well, looks like they are on their way,” Mike said.

  “All of them?” Libby asked.

  “Yep, and then some.”

  “And then some?”

  “One guy brought his whole family and another just his kids,” Mike reached for his coffee.  “Is that a problem?”

  “No, I just didn’t consider that would happen.  It will be okay.  How many of them all together?”

  “Let’s see,”  Mike got up from the stool picking up the phone with its long wire following him as he walked to the window.  “Looks like ten, Libby.  Why should that matter?”

  “It doesn’t.  What are they doing now?”

  “Looks like they are walking down the street.”

  “Walking?  Really?  I thought they would be driving for sure.  Oh, well, I got things to do, Mike,  Thanks for the heads up.”

  “No problem but Libby,”  Mike asked as he turned and walked back to his stool.  “What’s going on?”

  The phone went silent.  He placed the handset back into its cradle.

—

  Outside, the group of ten had split into two smaller ones of their own design.  Linda, and all of the kids;  Jill, Jenny, Freddy and Charlie, walked across the street from the gas station to all the storefronts.  The five remaining were the Candlelight gang.  Sammi. Fred, and Chris walked slightly ahead of Chuck and David.

  “So, it’s been awhile since we did this, huh?”  David said as he trudged along, head down.

  “It has and it looks like you have all been doing okay,”  Fred stated as he turned his head toward David.

  “Mostly,” Sammi answered.

  “We can catch up later,” Chris interrupted.  “The Candle Factory.  Have any of you been in there?”

  “Really/” Fred answered.  “I am fairly sure we all of have been in there.  We were all born here, remember.”

  “I meant recently,” Chris grinned at his old friend.

  “Why would that matter?”  Sammi asked.  “The postcard said to get a candle.  That’s why we are going there.”

  “Yes, but it would be nice to know what we are walking into,” Chris tried to explain why he asked.

  “I am sure it hasn’t changed much,” Chris said as they just past the parking lot of the gas station and were strolling next to the woods beside it on their left.

  “Hey, do you remember running around in there?” Fred pointed toward the trees.

  “I remember,”  Sammi said.  “I loved riding my bike in there.”

  “Me, too,” Chris said as his looked over his right shoulder toward the storefronts and stopped.  “Where did they go?”

  The other four stopped and looked across the street.  The sidewalk was empty.

  “I wonder where they are,” Chris said.

—

  Linda led the four kids across the street.  She looked at her two boys as they chattered with the twins.  Freddy was the most excited and it seemed like one of the girls, Jill, she believed, although it was hard to tell, was the one doing most of the talking.  Charlie bounced between and through each one, clearly not caring but enjoying that he was part of it.  The remaining twin, shook her head occasionally and laughed easily.  Suddenly, that one stopped in the middle of the street.

  “You are crazy, Jill!”  Jenny exclaimed as she stomped her foot in the middle of the street.. 

  Charlie grabbed her and pulled her forward before Linda could remind them to keep moving.  When she stepped on the sidewalk, she glanced over her shoulder at the group they just left behind.  They were huddled together, and she could tell that they were falling back into the way they were when they were much younger.  She turned her attention back to where she was and found her gang had moved on without her.  She stepped up over the sidewalk ledge and joined as they had gathered in front of a storefront window.  It was a bakery and the door was open to allow the wonderful scents of baked goods.  There was a display of birthday cakes on the left and loaves of bread on the right leaving the center to allow a straight on view of the glass fronted counter featuring doughnuts.  Behind the counter, a woman stood leaning on it, smiling at her.  Linda smiled and waved.  The woman waved back.

  “Come on kids, let’s get a doughnut.”

—

  “I wonder where they went?”  Chuck started to cross the street when a group of young people and one woman emerged from a store, doughnuts in hand.

  Chuck started to laugh and said, “They went into the bakery for a doughnut.” 

  He waved to his wife and she waved back at him.  All the kids waved back then which got a similar wave from the five adults of the other group.

  “Wasn’t there a fort or something in the woods,”  Fred continued as he started walking again and the others started to walk with him.

  “I think you are remembering the open space in the middle,” Sammi replied.

  “That’s right!” Chuck added.  ”All the paths led to that opening in the middle of the woods.”

  “It was where we would meet up when we were kids,” David reminded them.  “Until we grew up and started to meet up at the Milk Straw.”

  “The Milk Straw,” Chuck said.  “Ah, good times.”

  “We’re here,” Sammi said as she paused in front of the building called The Candle Factory.  It was a large building for the town of Candlelight, but it really wasn’t exceptionally large.  It was really two white buildings, a smaller one resembling a small house, stood in front of a larger building that was as tall as the smaller one but as big as half a football field and square.  The larger one had windows along each side, but the front had two regular doors on either side of a tall garage door.  Over the garage door was a huge sign that stated The Candle Factory in huge black, block letters.  Smaller letters, in black, fancy script letters said, “Founded a long time ago…”.  Shrubbery strategically surrounded the building.  A parking lot was to the right of the buildings and it front of it, facing the street another sign with the same lettering towered above it.

  Chuck smiled as Linda and her entourage joined the Candlelight gang.

  “It looks like a house with a big garage,”  Linda said looking at it.

  “Yeah,”  Fred said.  “Only it’s not.  It’s amazing in there.  Maybe we can get a tour.”

  “Really?” Jenny blurted out.  “A tour?”

  “Shall we?”  Sammi led the group up the sidewalk toward the front door.

  The walkway led to series of three steps that leveled to a wide landing.  From the parking lot, a concrete ramp joined the landing that was trimmed with a bright blue handrail along the front of it.  The two boys ran to the ramp entrance and met the rest of them at the top as they climbed the three steps and stood in front of the door.

  “Why is everyone acting so weird?”  Fred said as he reached around Sammi and pushed the door open.  “We’ve been in there before.”

  A bell jingled as, one by one, the group stepped into a scented gift shop.  Opposite the door, about 30 feet, a desk sat in front of a mirrored wall proclaiming ‘Welcome to The Candle Factory.  A high back chair was on the other side of the desk.  It was empty.

  “Wow,” Jenny whispered as she walked toward to the tall, glass fronted, cabinets that wrapped around the room.  “I’ve never seen so many candles!”

  “Look Mom!” Charlie exclaimed pointing to the ceiling.

  The group, as if one, looked up to see five chandeliers, one in the middle of four.  Each one had three arms that held a lit candle.

  “Oh darn, one of them has gone out,”  a voice interrupted.

  The ten people looked at a woman with shoulder length blond hair dressed in a white, long sleeve blouse and blue jeans standing next to the desk.

  “Good morning,” she said as she nodded toward them.  “Welcome to the Candle Factory.  I’m Mary.  May I help you?”

  “Where did you come from?”  Freddy blurted out.

  “Freddy!”  Linda scolded.  “I am sorry, Mary.  I thought I was raising him better.”

  “That is perfectly fine,”  Mary smiled and turned to Freddy.  “There is a door right over there.  You don’t notice it because It has mirrors on it, too.  Sorry, I wasn’t here.  On Saturday we have a small crew, so I don’t sit out here all the time.  How can I help you?”

  “We understand,” Sammi stepped forward.  “We are interested in buying some candles.”

  “Of course.  Well, as you can see we have many candles you can chose from,”  Mary gestured around the room.  “Simply choose what you want and bring them to my desk, and I will ring you out.  If you want more of a certain one, I can get whatever you need from the backroom.  Questions?  OK then have fun!”

  As Mary walked around the desk to sit down, the rest of them broke into smaller groups and began to explore.  Chuck and his family walked to the bookcases that ran along the wall to right of Mary’s counter.  The first one they paused at was filled with tall candles of all shapes of all the colors of the rainbow.  Chuck noticed an engraved placard at the top of the cabinet said, “Long Candles”.  He smirked to himself.

  “I like to bright green one,”  Freddy said almost to himself.

  “Which green one, honey?”  Linda asked her son.

  “All of them,”  he whispered back.  “How do they do this?”

  “Do what?”  Charlie was standing beside him.

  “Make so many colors.”

  “Let’s go.  We have so many to look at,” Chuck tried to hurry them along to the next cabinet.

—

  Sammi and Fred headed toward the cabinets to the left of Mary’s counter, stopping at the first one.  This one was filled with hanging, shimmering, pastel colored candles.  Sammi giggled in amazement.

  “How did they do that?” Fred carefully pulled open the doors of the cabinet labeled “Falling Stars”.  He stuck his head inside to look at the top of the inside of it.

  “Get you head out of there, Fred!”  Sammi pulled him by the arm.  “It must be some kind of string construction, silly.”

  “You’re right,” Fred emerged from the cabinet.  “Sort of.  It’s more like wires attached to circles of clear plastic so the candles can slip inside and hang.  Pretty cool, huh?”

  “Actually,”  Sammi stepped back from the cabinet.  “Come here by me to see something pretty cool.”

  Fred did and together they looked through the cabinet windows.  The shimmering candles, top to bottom, mimicked the colors of the rainbow from red to orange to yellow to green to blue to indigo and, finally, to purple in soft pastels.  As the candles slowly turned back and forth, tiny specks of light sparkled out from them.

  “Cool,” Fred said.

—

  Chris and his twelve year old twins wandered toward the front of the store.  Jenny started to turn in a small circle.

  “There’s too many, Dad,”  she said as she stopped to face him.

  “Yeah, it seems so, hon,” he said as he looked around the room.

  “What kind of candles do you lie, Dad?”  Jill asked him.

  “Well,” he said as he started toward a cabinet to the left of the door.  “I’ve always been partial to birthday candles.”

  The twins joined him when he stopped in front of one of them.  They looked up at the label above the cabinet door.

  “It says “Birthday”.” Jenny said.

  “Thank you Captain Obvious,” Jill teased.  “Open it, Dad.”

—

   David stayed at the counter with Mary.  He bent to look at the counter’s window display then rose, tapping the glass of the countertop.

  “I’ll take that one,” he said to Mary.

  “Which one?”  she asked as she got out of her chair to stand opposite him.

  “Your favorite.”

  Mary smiled at him and slowly stood from her chair and first walked to her left, looking down through the cabinet top.  David followed her.  She then started to walk in the opposite direction, head still down, looking at the variety of candles.  He continued to follow her.  She again reversed direction, finally bending down to slide a door and reaching inside the cabinet.  David stood and waited.  Mary placed in front of him, a white rose with perfect petals and long, white, thorny stem.

  “That’s beautiful,” David reached out to pick it up.

  Mary followed his eyes as he raised it, “You asked me for my favorite.  That is it.”

  “It hardly weighs anything.  Are you sure it is a candle?”

  Mary smiled and pointed to the tip of the petal on top at the tiny wick that had blended into the flower.  David nodded.

  “I think I’ll take this one.”

  “Good choice,” Mary reached for it.  “Do you know everyone here?”

  “I do,” David answered as he watched her reach behind the cabinet again.  “Well, I don’t know the kids but the adults, well all but one, we grew up here in Candlelight.”

  “Really?” Mary had placed a long white box on the countertop.  “Why are you back here.”

  “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

  “We are on a scavenger hunt.”

  “A what?”

Chapter 6 – Baseball Fields

  Mary looked over nine candles that were lined up on the countertop next to David’s box.  The first in line were two small candles, squat, matching ones in glass jars.  The first was a pale yellow and she placed it in a box just the perfect size for the candle.  She did the same for the second one, a light blue shade and set it beside the first.

  “You do know that yellow one has a lovely lemon scent and the blue, blueberry,” Mary stated rather than asked.  The twin girls nodded in agreement.

  The next in line was a twelve inch, tapered candle, hot pink and yellow swirl.  Mary withdrew a thin, long sleeved envelope and slid the candle inside it. “This one has a scent, too.”

   “Really?” Chris nodded at her.  “What is it?”

  “Hmmm,  it’s hard to explain it.  You have to see for yourself.”

  “You mean smell it?”  Fred spoke from the end of the line causing some moans.  Mary just smiled.

  A bright red and yellow candle shaped into the number 9 was next to a bright green and white number 11.  A rainbow colored candle spelled out ‘Happy Birthday’ that had thirteen wicks peeking through the top of each letter was next.  Mary pulled out a small rectangular box and set it beside them.  “I assume these go together?”

  “Yes,” Linda answered.  “We have some birthdays coming up.”

  The two boys smiled up at Mary.

  “I knew it,” she smiled back at the boys as she placed the candles inside the box and closed the lid.

  “Uh, this one goes with them,” Chuck stammered pointing to the thick dark blue candle next in line.

  “No, it doesn’t,”  Mary opened a white lunch bag and put the blue candle inside it.  Linda laughed and Chuck glared back at her then smiled.

  The next candle was about four inches wide and varied heights stretched across it.  The appearance looked like it was a used candle as a trail of candlewax streamed down each side.  It, too, was rainbow colored but very random. Mary looked straight at Fred.  “This must be yours.”

  “Yep,” Fred shrugged at her.  “I thought it was funny.”

  “It is,” Freddy said as he watched Mary place it in another white lunch bag.  Mary chuckled.

  The last of the nine candles was a long white candle about twelve inches long with a string of white vines slowly winding around the length of it.

  “Ah, this one matches David’s,” Mary said as she placed a long, white box next to the candle.

  “What’s in David’s box?” Sammi asked as Mary placed her white vined candle in its box.

  “It’s a rose,” David reached for the box with it inside and opened it for the others to see the candle.

  “It’s pretty,”  Jill said as everyone looked at the almost real rose.

  “It is,” Mary said.  “It is one of my favorite ones.”

  “Okay,” Chuck interrupted.  “Mary, what do we owe you?”

  “Nothing.  They were paid for in advance,”  Mary smiled and bowed her head toward them then started to walk to the door.

  “Wait,” David called after her. “Who paid for them?”

  Mary turned and folded her hands in front of her.  “Good luck on your hunt.”  She nodded again and walked through the door leaving the group alone in the room.

  They stood looking back and forth at each other.

  “That was weird, wasn’t it?” Fred asked out loud.

  “What’s going on?”  David asked in return.

  “Only one way to find out,” Sammi said and turned back to the counter and grabbed her candle and headed toward the door..  “Let’s go finish this hunt.”

  The group followed her with their candles in hand out the door where Sammi waited on the landing.  Jill already had the postcard in her hand and said, “It says baseball field dirt.”

  “We have to get some baseball field dirt?” Jenny asked.

  “I guess so,” Chris told his daughter.

  “Which way do we go?” Freddy asked as he started down the ramp.

  “Not so fast, young man,” Linda warned him.  “Let’s figure out a plan.  First, where are the fields?”

  “They are by the park a couple of blocks that way on Fourth,” David said.  “My street.”

  “Mine, too,” Chris said.  “I believe we were next door neighbors.”

  “We were,”  David stepped down the steps.  “We should cross the street here and walk on the sidewalk.”

  The others followed him down the steps and stretched out in front of the Candle Factory forming a long line.

  “Hold hands!”” Fred yelled.

  “Why?” Sammi asked him.

  “Why not?”

  They all joined hands forming a chain in this order; Chuck, David, Jill, Jenny, Sammi, Fred, Freddy, Charlie, Linda, and Chris.

  “Wait!  I see a car coming this way,” Chuck warned.  They waited as a small white truck drove past them. 

  “Okay, go!”  Linda yelled.

  The line moved in a mad dash across the street giggling and laughing as they did so.  They broke hands and turned to regroup in a small huddle.

  “What’s this house?’  Jenny asked them. They all turned to look at large two-story house with a well-manicured lawn with perfectly trimmed shrubs carefully placed in front of the large windows on the bottom level.

  “That,” Fred said.  “Is the Fuller House.  That family owns the Candle Factory.”

  “They just walk to work,” Jill commented.

  “Most people walk to work in this town,” Chuck explained.

  “I worked there one summer,” Sammi said.

  “What? When?” Fred asked in surprise.

  “I was a mail girl,” Sammi explained.  “It was our junior year.  I worked early in the morning and I sorted and delivered the mail to the different departments before 8 o’clock Monday to Friday.  My Mom got me the job.”

  “Why didn’t we know about this, Samantha?”  David asked.

  “You guys slept until noon back then and what you didn’t know wouldn’t hurt you.”

  “Which way do we go?”  Charlie interrupted.

  “Oh, yeah,” Chris responded to the youngest.  “That way toward the churches.”

  Just past the Fuller house they came to a street with a sign proclaiming it Second Street.  A white house stood on the corner with a small sign proclaiming it the Candlelight Mortuary and Funeral Services.  The group crossed the street and the boys ran ahead while the twins drifted to the rear of the pack.

  “What do you think?”  Jenny asked of Jill.

  “It doesn’t matter to me because I think it is nice to see Dad with his friends.  Why does it matter to you, Jen?”

  “I guess I just don’t like this mystery,” Jenny said looking at the adults in front of her. “Dad does look happy.”

  The six adults were gathered in a small cluster as they walked along.  Fred, Chuck and Linda were slightly ahead of Sammi who was closely followed by Chris and David.  It appeared that they were bombarding Linda with comments about their surroundings.

  “Oh, look,” Fred pointed across the street.  “There’s the cemetery.  Remember the time we snuck out of church and scared the girls back there.  David, you wore a sheet and howled, I think.”

  “No,” David laughed.  “That was you.  I was the one in the werewolf mask.”

  “No.” Sammi interrupted. “You both looked like idiots.”

  “Oh yeah.  Who was the one that screamed like a little girl?” Chuck asked her.

  “That was Libby, not me,”  Sammi explained.  “Or maybe it was Fred.  I can’t remember.”

  Fred laughed and said, “Good times.”

  “Freddy and Charlie, do not cross that street!” Linda yelled at the two boys running ahead of them.  “Wait right there for us.”

  “Which church did we sneak out of that time?” Chris asked.

  “I think it was from the Methodist Church,” Sammi said as they came to a stop at Church Street

  “Did you go to different churches?” Linda asked as they stopped at the street where the two boys waited.

  “Yes, we did,”  Chuck replied as he pointed to the building they were standing in front of.  “Me, Fred, and David went to this one, The Candlelight Methodist Church.  Sammi, Chris and Libby went to that one across the street, Sacred Heart Catholic.”

  “Father Dooley and Pastor Brown always did join youth events together,” Sammi added. “We were always together it seemed.”

  “Doesn’t Grandma live down this street?” Freddy piped up.

  “Why, yes,” Chuck answered surprised.  “This is the street she lives on.  How did you remember that?”

  “Fred told me to ask you?”

  Fred shrugged and started to cross Church Street.  The others followed him.

  “Where did you live Fred?” Freddy asked his new friend.

  “Back there.  On Second Street behind that big Fuller house across from the candle place,” Fred told him.

  “That is pretty far from where my Dad lived,” Freddy said.

  “Not as far as going to David and Chris’ house.”

  “Where did they live?”

  “We are coming up to my old house,” David pointed at the house on the corner of the next street.  “Right across from the Catholic Church and the farm over there.”

  “I grew up in the house next to David,” Chris said as they came to stop at the corner of Fourth Street.

  “Where did you live at, Sammi?”  Linda asked her.

  “I lived on Church Street across the street from Chuck, well, sort of.”

  “She lived on the other side of The Malt Shop,” Chuck added.

  “The one across the street from Grandma’s?” Charlie asked.

  “That’s right. Charlie,” Chuck ruffled his youngest son’s hair.

  “What I want to know.” Jenny interrupted.  “Is where are these baseball fields?”

  “Down there,” Chris pointed down Fourth Street.  “Just on the other side of the parking lot next to Grandma’s house.  You should know that, silly”

  “I kind of do.  Let’s go then,” Jenny started to walk down the sidewalk alongside the Catholic Church.  The remaining kids started to follow her.

  “Let’s.” Linda’s voice caused them all to turn toward her. “Cross the street and walk in front of David and Chris’ house.  Slowly, boys!”

  They all crossed and stood in front of a white house with a mailbox with a sunflower cover stationed at the corner of a driveway that led to a single car garage.  A second driveway was next to it with a similar mailbox with a “Welcome” cover.  It led to a matching single car garage attached to another white house.

  “They look the same,” Charlie said. “How do you know who lives where?”

  Fred laughed out loud.

  “You just do, Charlie,” David said to the youngster as, if by demand, both front doors opened.  From the first house, David’s house, a short, stout woman with silver hair stepped on the porch.  From the second house, Chris’ house, a tall, slender woman with shoulder length silver hair stepped onto her porch.

  “Is that you David!” the stout woman called out.

  “Yes, Mom, it’s me,” David gave her a half wave as the woman started down the front yard.  A short, bald man with white hair edging around his head caught the screen door before it slammed shut. 

  “Girls!” a scream emitted from the other house as the twins ran up the driveway.

  “Hi Mom!” Chris called from the street.

   The tall woman hugging a matching girl on either side of her, walked down the drive toward them.  The garage door slowly whirred open and a short, well-tanned man with long, white hair pulled back into a ponytail emerged from it.  He walked a few paces down the driveway and was joined by the first man at the center of the driveway.  They glanced at each other, smiled and nodded, and walked to join the melee that was occurring at the bottom of their respective driveways.

  After the squealing, hugs and introductions had died down, it was Chris’ dad who asked, “So what’s going on?”

  “Good question,” David’s dad followed up.

  “We are on a scavenger hunt!” Freddy answered for them.

  “What?”   David’s mom laughed.  “A scavenger hunt, really?”

  “Really,”  Sammi handed her a postcard.  “We are on the way to the baseball fields,”

  “A candle, baseball field dirt, and a church bulletin,”  David’s mom read out loud.  “Who sent this to you?”

  “We don’t know, Mom,” David answered.  “That’s why we are playing.”

  “Who do you think it is?” Chris’ mom asked.

  “I thought it was you,” Chris answered her.

  Behind them, David’s dad laughed.  “It does sound more like a Laverne and Shirley scheme to me.  What do you think, Robert?”

  “Could be, Bill,” Chris’ dad agreed.  “Sounds like they wanted it a way to see grandkids.”

  “Shirley,” David’s mom spoke up.  “Now I think it was those two.” 

  “You know, Laverne, they have been sneaking around.”

  “I don’t think it was any of you,”  Linda spoke up.  “Because you would have schemed together.  Kids, do you want to stay with your grandparents or come with us?”

  “We want to see this through,” Jenny said.  “Right Jill?”

  Jill looked at her twin and sighed.  “We do.”

  “Yeah,” Freddy added.  “We all got candles!”

  Four grandparents marched with the contestants past the parking lot next to Chris’ house.  The parking lot was full of cars pulling in and out of it.  The group stopped at the corner where Fourth Street crossed Candlelight Drive.

  “Ok,”  Sammi spoke first.  “Everyone hold hands and we are going to cross this street together.  When we get across the street, we are going to plan how we are going to get our dirt.”

  Fourteen people lined up, side by side, and held hands.  Linda looked both ways and began to count,  “One…two…three, go!”  The chain began to move across the street, and for some strange reason, they all yelled.  Several onlookers turned to see what the commotion was only to see a long line of people, laughing and giggling as they crossed the street.

  The baseball fields, as the place was called, was really as extension of Candlelight City Park.  City Park was in a plot of land between Fourth and Fifth Street on each side and Candlelight Drive and Fuller Street on each end .  The Fuller Street side was partially wooded with picnic tables and a walking path winding through it.  A playground area, filled with equipment, was spread out on the rest of the area where kids ran and played.  A basketball court, a tennis court and a volleyball court were bounded by a high, forest green, chain link fence.  The playground and courts were surrounded by benches for parents to watch their kids play.

  There were four baseball fields located on each corner of the remaining park ground.  Each of them were surrounded with small bleachers, which today were filled with people watching their kids play.  Two sets of soccer goals were stacked next to a row of trees that separated the baseball field from the playground..  They were brought out in the outfield during soccer season.  Tall poles divided the four fields into two groups and around the two fields on Fourth Street.  They were lights to allow night baseball on those two fields.  A small building stood on the other side of the baseball field that was closest to the playground that served as the concession stand that was open on gameday.

  “So,” Jenny began.  “How do we get baseball field dirt?  Every field has a game going on it.”

  “More importantly,” Jill added.  “How will we carry the dirt we get?  In our hands?”

  “Good point,” David agreed.  “I have an idea for that.  Can I borrow Charlie a minute?”

  “Sure,” Linda said as David and Charlie were already walking away.

  The group watched them as they headed toward the concession stand.

  “I get it,” Chuck said.  “He’s going to get a cup!”

  “Ok,” Fred said.  “We ought to figure out how we are going to get our dirt.”

  “I think we just go get it,” Freddy volunteered.

  “Freddy,” Linda began. “There are playing baseball.  We can’t just go and stop a game to get dirt.”

  “Why not?” Chris asked.  “They make a change every inning, don’t they?”

  “You mean just run out and grab our dirt and leave?”  Jill asked.

  “I like it!” Fred exclaimed.  “David is on his way back.  Which field do we hit?”

  “This one,” Sammi pointed. “It is the closest one.”

  “Let’s all go to second base,” Jill laughed.  “That would really freak everyone out.”

  “I had to buy this,”  David and Charlie had just returned to the group, each holding red, plastic solo cups.  “What’s the plan?”

  “In between innings,” Jenny spoke first.  “Second base.”

  They all turned to watch the game.  It looked like eleven or twelve year old kids were playing.  The team in the field wore bright red shirts, white pants and red socks.  The caps on their heads were white.  Their opponents wore bright blue shirts, socks and caps.  Currently,  there was a blue shirted player on first and the pitcher, with a long ponytail coming out of the back of her white cap had just brought her arms to her chest and paused.  Suddenly went into motion, raising her leg closest to the batter and drawing her arm with the white ball in it behind her head and swung it forward releasing it at just the right moment.  Almost instantly, the batter started to step toward the pitcher and started to swing the bat.  Ball and bat collided and the level of noise surrounding the field exploded at the same time.   The ball hit the ground and was headed toward the shortstop and the hitter started to run toward first base.  The runner on first started running toward second base and the shortstop stepped toward the ground ball headed toward him.  The fielder picked up the ball and turned toward second and threw the ball toward it.  The second baseman, a small boy with glasses, was waiting there, foot on the base and caught the ball as the runner from first base began to slide in front of the base.  The second baseman hurriedly threw the ball toward first base. A tall, skinny girl with her right foot pushed against the bottom of the base stretched out to catch the ball heading her way.  The ball thudded in her glove just before the hitter’s foot banged on the base.

  “Out!” the older teenage boy who was an umpire yelled above the noise surrounding the field.

  The players on the field cheered and started running off the field toward the first base line.  Behind them, from the left field corner, a small group of people yelled and ran onto the field.  The players dressed in blue started on the field but stopped in confusion as they watched this group arrive at second base, bend down, grab handfuls of dirt and race back toward the left field corner where they came from.  One of the men, grabbed a lagging little boy and ran with him off of the field.  Every one of them was laughing and yelling at each other.

  Jenny and Jill were the first stop at the point on the ground where two red solo cups sat on the ground.  Jenny put her handful of dirt into one of them and picked them both off of the ground.  She turned toward the rest of them and each one of them dumped their dirt into one of the cups.

  “That,” Freddy cried out.  “Was awesome!”

  “Yeah, it was,” Fred agreed with.  “So what’s next?”

 Chapter 7 – Church
Sammi took her postcard from her pocket and reviewed it.
“Church bulletins,” Freddy spoke before she could respond.
Sammi looked at the little boy and smiled.
“So there are two churches,” David began. “Split and divide?’
“Yeah,” Chuck agreed. “How? Draw straws?”
“”I think the older folks are going to leave you at it,” Laverne interrupted the discussion.
“Yep, I think this has been all the adventure I can take for one day,” Shirley chimed in. “We’ll take the two older boys’ home now. I have things for mine to do today.”
Bill shook his head and Robert smiled and said, “Let’s go then. Thanks for the distraction and we will be seeing you later, right? Just a suggestion, I think you should line up and count off. Come here kids and give your grandpas hugs.”
The grandchildren hugged their respective grandparents as their parents watched and lined up and counted, one, two, one, two. The resulting two groups looked like this – Sammi, Chris and Chuck and the second was Fred, David and Linda. As the kids returned from their good-byes to their grandparents, the two groups were deciding which group would go to which church.
“Which team am I on?” Charlie asked when he rejoined the group.
“I just thought you and your brother would go with me honey,” Linda spoke up.
“I don’t want to go with you. I want to go with Dad,” Charlie answered her.
“Oh,” Linda looked at Chuck who shrugged his shoulders in response.
“Good because I want to go with Fred,“ Freddy chimed in. “We’re a team!”
“Yes we are,” Fred said to him.
“And I don’t want to be on my sister’s team either,” Jill added to the conversation.
In the end, Team Catholic Church is Sammi, Chris, Chuck, Jenny and Charlie. Team Methodist Church is David, Linda, Fred, Freddy and Jill. The entire group started to follow the grandparents down the sidewalk but stopped at the corner of the parking lot. They were across the street from the home of Father Dooley and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
“Do we need to visit Father first?” Sammi asked.
“Churches in small towns leave their doors open all the time,” Chuck said to her. “Hopefully, we can go in and they will have bulletins out on a table or something.”
“How do we get to our church?” Jill asked.
“We will follow the alley behind the two churches there,” David pointed directly across the street from them.
“Hold hands,” Linda said, and the group filed into a long line, hand in hand. Together, they looked down the street to the left then to the right and stepped off the sidewalk. The line ran across the street and stepped up and over the curb onto another sidewalk. They dropped their arms and divided again into their two groups. Team Catholic Church turned to the right and headed to the front door of the closest building as Team Methodist Church began their walk down the alley.
Chris ended up leading Team Catholic Church down the sidewalk to the steps that led up to the front door of the Catholic church almost directly across the street from the front door of the house he grew up in. He tried the front door and just like Chuck had guessed, the door opened.
“Well, what do you know Chuck, you were right,” Chris said as he held the door and the group filed past him into the building, He followed them in and found that they were in a dimly lit vestibule. An office was on the right of the front door. The doorway to the office was open. To the left of the front door was an open door into a long, open room that was dark. A plaque next to its entry proclaimed it to be ”The Cloak Room.” Just beyond the church office and cloak room was a hallway. A plaque on its wall had directions to two rooms within the building. On top of the list Sanctuary was written with an arrow pointing to the right. The arrow pointing left indicated that Classrooms were in that direction.
“Is there anyone in the office?” Sammi asked and Jenny walked inside the room. She walked back out shaking her head no.
“Then let’s go down to the Sanctuary,” Sammi said and began to walk down the hallway and the rest of the followed her. The hallway had dim lighting overhead and it seemed like they were walking in a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was another door with a red exit sign above it. Halfway down on the left side of the hall, two side-by-side doors appeared. Chris pulled the left door open allowing everyone to walk through it.
They were standing in the Sanctuary directly in front, or behind, several rows of wooden pews. Looking toward the right was the alter area. A huge stain glass window behind and above it depicted the figure of Jesus, hands folded in prayer, kneeling and looking up into heaven. Just below the window is a large boxed in section of three rows of benches covered with light brown cushions. This appeared to be the choir loft. In front of the loft stood two lecterns. The one standing stage right had three chairs behind it and the other one standing stage left, had one chair behind it. Standing at that lectern was a man staring at them.
“May I help you?” he asked them.
“Yes, maybe, I hope so. We,” Chuck answered as he gestured toward the rest of them. “Are on a scavenger hunt and we need a worship service bulletin from you.”
The man at the pulpit smiled down at them before speaking again. “Hi. I’m Father Dooley and I have been waiting for you.”
At the same time this was happening, Team Methodist Church had just arrived at the front door of the Candlelight Methodist Church. Three steps led up to a landing before the front door with wheelchair ramps stretching on both sides of the steps. Dark green handrails edged the three steps and continued down each side of the ramps. The front door itself was actually two doors, side by side, rounded at the top and they seemed oversized. David stepped up the three steps and tugged on the door and it opened.
The team stepped inside and found themselves standing in an open room. On the wall to their left was a large picture frame titled Welcome. Below it were flyers of community events and church activities on a bulletin board. A glass fronted door was next to the welcome board proclaiming Office. On their left two doors stood open. Above them, perfectly painted black letters stated it, The Worship Center. On the other side of the doors was a small empty table and next to it a longer one that held literature neatly lined up. Two dinner plate sized baskets sat on the end of it. A larger basket held name tags. Opposite the entry to the building was a portrait of a man with shoulder length hair that framed a smiling bearded face. An exit sign was above and just to the right of the portrait pointing to another door. To the left of the portrait, two smaller plaques with arrows identifying that restrooms and classrooms are to the left.
Freddy glanced through the glass door and to his right he saw a desk with several file cabinets behind it. To his left, he saw a second door standing open. A man suddenly stepped out from it and placed something on the desk. Freddy squealed and jumped back. The man quickly turned and found himself seeing a small group of people with a small boy sitting at her feet, all staring back at him. He waved and they all waved back. The man stepped forward, opened the door and said, “I’m Pastor Brown, how may I help you?”
“Hi,” Linda said as she reached down and helped Freddy up from the floor. “I’m Linda and this is going to sound weird, but we are on a scavenger hunt.”
“Doesn’t sound weird at all. I was expecting you. Shall we go into the Worship Center?” The pastor motioned toward the entryway across the hall. The group turned and started toward the room as directed. Fred opened the door and they stepped inside. Straight ahead, a gold cross hung from the ceiling directly above a stage. In the center of the stage stood a lectern with a tall, high back chair behind it. To the right and a few feet behind it stood three microphone stands A set of drums was set up slightly in the back surrounded by tall three glass panes. To the left of the drums, lined up behind the microphones, three guitars stood in their stands. A keyboard stood next to last microphone on the left. A small white alter was located to the left of the lectern with two tall candles sitting on opposite ends of it. Two monitor screens were mounted on the walls on either side of the stage and currently both displayed a message that stated, “Welcome to Candlelight UMC.” Rows of chairs were set up across the room, divided by two aisles. Jill led the way down the nearest aisle to the fifth row, turned into it and in they walked, in a single file and sat down on blue cushioned chairs. Behind them, Pastor Brown broke the silence, “I’ll be right back. I forgot something.”
“This is pretty big,” Freddy whispered.
“Yes, it is,” Fred answered. “But it is different than what I remembered.”
“Me, too,” David agreed. “I remember rows of pews and some of these chairs were behind that altar for the choir.”
“Yeah,” Fred stated. “There was a piano over there.”
“The cross was the same, hanging over the altar,” David continued.
“I like the cross,” Jill chimed in.
The sound of footsteps caused all their heads to turn toward it. Pastor Brown was returned, and he stepped into the row in front of them.
“I have somethings for you,” he said as he began to hand them sheets of paper.. “A bulletin for tomorrow’s service and a postcard.”
Linda took the postcard from him and asked him, “Do you know who is behind this hunt?”
“Why, yes,” Pastor Brown stood in front of them and folded his hands in front of him.
“Well, who?” David asked.
“I pledged to keep it secret,” Pastor Brown smiled.
“Shall I read it?” Linda asked.
“Yes!’ Freddy yelled and they all laughed.
Linda held the postcard up and began to read, “A hotel hand towel, a throat lozenge and a soda straw from The Malt Shop.”